Hockey Shooting Pad Review

The Guys over at hockeyshot were kind enough to send us some awesome hockey training products for us to review. The first training product we reviewed is the first item you should buy if you want to work on stick handling and shooting; and if you use our coupon (bottom of page) you get $10 off orders over $100, plus we get a bit of money to help pay for pucks (everybody wins). This is our review of the pro hockey shooting pad

The hockey shooting pad we are reviewing is 60inches x 30inches, 3/16 inches thick. When I first got the shooting pad I thought, wow that’s big! I was used to shooting off of a small piece of synthetic ice so I couldn’t wait to test out a big one. First I gave it a thorough inspection.

Cheapo Alert – Some people are using home made shooting pad alternatives. I have tried to make my own shooting pad, and the biggest problem I have is that they crack VERY easily. If you are going to practice a lot (especially if you plan on taking slapshots) save yourself some time and money and just get a good product from the start.

First look at the hockey shooting pad

Ok, so I couldn't resist taking some shots on the board when it came in the mail. That explains the stick tape marks. Don't worry, your board will come nice and white!

I like the size of the pad, with a smaller pad I was fairly limited to what I could do. For younger players a small shooting pad is good for shooting and a bit of stickhandling, but if you are older you will find you run out of real estate fairly quickly.

Friction

I ran my hand down the surface and it felt very smooth. I grabbed a puck right away (not hard to find at my house) and slid it back and forth, the result? the sticker says “feels like ice” well, it isn’t cold, but that puck sure does slide nicely.

Thickness

This board is 3/16 inches thick, sounds thin but it is actually pretty solid compared to other shooting pads. The first shooting pad I bought as a kid was a lot thinner, I used it quite a bit and after three years (when it went missing) it was still in great shape, so a thicker pad should last decades. The material used for this shooting pad looks very durable, which means it should last A LOT longer than that piece of warped plywood you have been shooting off of 😉

Portability

For such a big shooting pad it is still fairly portable. It comes with a handle which makes moving it a lot easier. You can easily tuck this board away, and pull it out when you want to improve your hockey skills.

If you want to take it to the park or a friends place, you would be fine with a truck, van, wagon or SUV, even a car with fold down seats might work. I did have some trouble getting it into my car, although it is a two door.

The pad is also a great way to reduce wear on your blade. I went through a lot of sticks and money when I used to practice shooting right off the pavement or asphalt

Size

Junior – 24 inches wide by 48 long and 1/8 of an inch thick

Intermediate 28 inches wide by 52 inches long and 3/16 of an inch thick

Professional shooting pads which are 30 inches wide by 60 inches long and 3/16 of an inch thick.

Taking it to the street

This would not be a real review without us using and abusing this board. We took the hockey shooting pad to an outdoor rink. We also shot this video that shows us testing the shooting pad.

we were really mean to it. We took about 1000 slapshot, tested it for stick handling and shooting and it definitely did exactly what it is designed to do.

The result?

Stickhandling

The pad is great for stickhandling with a normal puck, the puck will flip up from time to time, but the better you are at stickhandling the less times the puck flips up ( great way to get nice soft hands) You could also use a stick handling ball or puck alternative like the green biscuit for an even smoother ride (also available at hockeyshot)

There is lots of room to practice dribbling ( moving the puck quickly back and forth) and wider moves. There is also a lot of room to practice toe drags, and even room to put down some obstacles to stick handle around.

Great for toe drags!

Shooting

The hockey shooting pad is great for… Well…shooting!

Wrist shots – If you are going to practice shooting on a regular basis I definitely recommend this pad (60 x 30 hockey shooting pad). The pad gives enough room for a full wrist shot, and then some. I find with smaller pads I was not practicing proper wrist shot form because I did not have enough room to pull the puck back, step into it, and then really rifle it at the net.

Slapshots – A big pad is great for slapshots as well. The shooting pad is fairly wide so I like put the wide side facing the net and then line up a row of pucks. This allows me to take a bunch of shots without resetting after every shot.

Durability

We beat this thing up quite a bit and it definitely stood up nicely. We hammered close to 1000 slapshots at full power and the only marks on the board were from hockey tape, which can easily be wiped off (you know, if you are into cleaning). I think the board will take a fair amount of abuse, which means it is going to last a very long time!

Overall Thoughts

This is definitely a great tool to have if you want to practice and improve your stickhandling and shooting. The hockey shooting pad is probably the closest you can get to real ice, at a very reasonable price. I get the itch to play hockey a lot and I find just having the board around motivates me to practice more, because it is the closest thing I have to shooting and stickhandling at the rink.

If you want to buy a hockey shooting pad visithockeyshot.com and use this coupon HOWHCKY001 for $10 off orders over $100

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Hi my name is Jeremy Rupke. My goal is to break every hockey skill down into easy to understand articles and videos. I explain everything step-by-step to help others improve. I'm active on Instagram, Facebook and more, you can follow through the links above.
If you want to learn more about me you can read my about page. Thanks for reading and sharing!

Hey Jeremy. I’m 15 and I currently play Midget, and next year I’ll be moving onto trying out for my last year of AAA moving into Jr.B! I was wondering what would be the better decision, tiles or the roll up pad? I currently have a small pad and don’t feel safe taking slap shots because my stick could chip if I miss the pad. If you could let me know what would be better for me as a defenseman I’d appreciate it!

Hi, I want to get a pad, but you mentioned in your video that the smaller sizes were too small!! So I was wondering if 40″ by 20″ is too small? I am not really a beginner and I am definitely not as good as you, or a pro. I also do not know if I am an intermediate. Also, is there any place cheaper? I am a teenager and I do not have a job!! Thanks.

Hi jeremy I just brought the pro model shooting pad like a week a go and its scratched up and dirty how should I clean it and why is it getting scratched up Because in the article you said there was no scratches on the board after using it
Thanks,
Ryan

I recently bought a medium size shooting board but most of the time, the puck does not slide well and flips around too much. Does anyone have any solutions? (something to get the puck to slide better on my shooting board)

Hi im gonna use this mostly indoors and my house isnt big i have a small net is the Junior one good for handling cuz im not rich and i want a pad . So is it good for handling and cradling and shooting?

Yeah it is great! I like the roll-up shooting pad the best because of it’s size and use it all the time. If you can’t stickhandle properly the puck will flip, but if you have smooth hands and can cup the puck the puck slides great on the shooting pads and the roll-up shooting pad.

Hey Jeremy,
I have a tip that i’ve heard helps an ice hockey black puck slide better. (i have yet to use this because my shooting pad is still shipping.) Anyway i heard if your freeze a black ice hockey puck it works on the pad better. I mean they do freeze pucks before games in the NHL, so why not give it a shot!

thanks, i was originally just thinking of using white tape because i’ve been using black tape. the marks were made by the stick without tape on by the way but i think thats because theres still a bit of black tape sticking on it. i think that the white tape will work though. i was just wondering one more thing, people online say that to make your skillpad faster you should use pledge, or some sort of furniture polish. Do you think that it will help or should i not put it because it might ruin the pad. Some people say to use WD-40 but then some say it leaves black sticky stuff on the pad ruining it. So i was just wondering if you could help me with that because i thought your other advice was very informative.

Hi Mishal, those products that “make the pad more slippery” are mostly for skillpads that are made at home. I find with the ones you buy they are already pretty slick.

I think something that would work would be the stuff they put on shuffleboards. It is a powder type substance that helps the weights slide. I’m kind of cheap though, so I just stick with the shooting pad!

i was just wondering about the puck marks. i only used my skillpad one day and there were already marks on it but i noticed that it was coming From my stick so i don’t know if these marks will ruin the performance of the skillpad. will using white tape on my stick blade help prevent the marks because i’ve been using black tape on it only so i’ve stopped shooting up till now because i don’t want more marks then there are already.

Yes Mishal, that is very common for the hockey tape to leave marks on the shooting pad. One solution is to not tape the bottom of your blade, just tape the front and back, but this will cause your blade to wear down faster. You could use white tape and the marks will not be as noticeable.

I have not noticed a big difference in performance due to the tape marks, but I think it does add a bit more friction.

Hi Noah, no matter what age I always recommend the biggest pad as it gives you the most amount of room to practice shooting and stickhandling. My favourite one is the extreme passing kit. We have a review on the site.

[…] Despite my best efforts, the best surface I ever found was $50 at National Sports for a tiny hockey shooting pad. I used it until it turned black, and eventually misplaced it, but I loved it and I actually […]